How to call the create action from the controller in RSpec

Question

I have a controller create action that creates a new blog post, and runs an additional method if the post saves successfully.

I have a separate factory girl file with the params for the post I want to make. FactoryGirl.create calls the ruby create method, not the create action in my controller.

How can I call the create action from the controller in my RSpec? And how would I send it the params in my factory girl factories.rb file?

posts_controller.rb

def create
  @post = Post.new(params[:post])
  if @post.save
    @post.my_special_method
    redirect_to root_path
  else
    redirect_to new_path
  end
end

spec/requests/post_pages_spec.rb

it "should successfully run my special method" do
  @post = FactoryGirl.create(:post)
  @post.user.different_models.count.should == 1
end

post.rb

def my_special_method
  user = self.user
  special_post = Post.where("group_id IN (?) AND user_id IN (?)", 1, user.id)
  if special_post.count == 10
    DifferentModel.create(user_id: user.id, foo_id: foobar.id)
  end
end

end

I think you're a little confused about what FactoryGirl is for... it's for generating data in your database, not for calling controller actions. And what you have described in your post_pages_spec.rb looks like a unit test on the Post model, not an actual request spec. Explicitly calling controller actions is only done in controller specs, and is done like so: relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/v/2-13/docs/controller-specs — sevenseacat
– sevenseacat, Commented May 14, 2013 at 2:24
Thanks sevenseacat. I added the definition for my_special_method for clarity. As you can see, the method counts the number of special_posts that have been saved in the database. I have a before block in my rspec that creates 9 prior posts. I want to make sure the tenth post results in the creation of a new differentmodel object. — umezo
– umezo, Commented May 14, 2013 at 2:35
Again this is not a request spec. A controller spec is the only one that explicitly calls a controller action. — sevenseacat
– sevenseacat, Commented May 14, 2013 at 3:07
OK, thanks sevenseacat. I thought I read (RailsCasts, Rails Tutorial) that some people forgo controller specs and cover everything with just model and request specs. Is this bad practice? — umezo
– umezo, Commented May 14, 2013 at 3:37
Some people do, but that doesn't mean you just put controller tests inside a request spec. — sevenseacat
– sevenseacat, Commented May 14, 2013 at 3:44

Jim Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-14 04:13:29Z

5

Request specs are integration tests, using something like Capybara to visit pages as a user might and perform actions. You wouldn't test a create action from a request spec at all. You'd visit the new item path, fill in the form, hit the Submit button, and then confirm that an object was created. Take a look at the Railscast on request specs for a great example.

If you want to test the create action, use a controller spec. Incorporating FactoryGirl, that would look like this:

it "creates a post" do
  post_attributes = FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:post)
  post :create, post: post_attributes
  response.should redirect_to(root_path)
  Post.last.some_attribute.should == post_attributes[:some_attribute]
  # more lines like above, or just remove `:id` from
  #   `Post.last.attributes` and compare the hashes.
end

it "displays new on create failure" do
  post :create, post: { some_attribute: "some value that doesn't save" }
  response.should redirect_to(new_post_path)
  flash[:error].should include("some error message")
end

These are the only tests you really need related to creation. In your specific example, I'd add a third test (again, controller test) to ensure that the appropriate DifferentModel record is created.

answered May 14, 2013 at 4:13

Jim Stewart

17.4k5 gold badges77 silver badges91 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

umezo Over a year ago

Thanks Jim, this is perfect. By the way, I also want to test a voting action, to a path of vote_post_path(post, type: "like"). How would I do that? I've tried post :vote, post: my_post, type: "like", but this gives me No route matches {:post=>"391", :type=>"like", :controller=>"post", :action=>"vote"} rake routes tells me its vote_post POST /posts/:id/vote(.:format)

umezo Over a year ago

nevermind, figured it out. post :vote, id: my_post.id, type: 'like' worked fine. Thanks again for your help.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to call the create action from the controller in RSpec

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related